PERSONAL ITEMS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 11284, 29 June 1888, Page 2

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Tennyson, the poet, is again at work, and, it is stated, at a poem of some length. Oscar Wilde lives in Carlyle's house, and lias bought Carlyle's book-case at an auction. •' Ouida " (liouise do la Bame) denies that shu smokes, and declares that she has always let the weed alone. Mr Kpurgeon has returned to Eastbourne. Tie is medically advised to abstain from writing or study as much as possible. The UaUo of Argyll, who has been confined to his room in Inverary Castle for 3ome weeks past by an attack . of gout, is now much better. Herbert Spencer employs an amanuonsis {or about three hours daily, so it is said, aud finds recreation chiefly in billiards. This news comes from America. Mr Charles. B Hern has been appointed' to instruct the Princesses Louise, Victoria, and Maud of Wales in water-colour painting I and sketching from Nature. Professor Blackie laments that "in theological thought and religious life the Scotch aio showing the tendencies to laxnesa which are characteristic of these times." The Queen has been so charmed with Florence that she contemplates purchasing a residence and grounds near Fiesole, within a short distance of the Villa Palmieri. Mr George Newnes, M.P., fhe proprietor of Tit-Bits, has, it is reported, recently bought a house and grounds on the most Jk elevated part of Wimbledon Common for 4 t £30,000. 1 The death is announced of Mr Richard Urinsley Sheridan, of Frampton Court, 1 Dorset, grandson of the dramatist, orator, statesman, and wit of the same, name, who died in ISKJ. 2'he inkstand on the table of the late German Emperor was a shell, the paper weights were the hoofs of favourite chargers, the pens splinters from Uhlan lances, a gold plate on each recording the heroic act in which the wood was employed. The Pope not only reads half-a-dozen of the leading French and Italian journals every day, but insists on being provided with a selection of American and English pipers from which ho directs one of his secretaries to make copious notes on leading topics. Isaac Pitman, the ," father of shorthand writing," is now seventy-six years old. He is almost an aosthefic, using no wine, beer, spirits, tobacco, nor animal food ofany kind. In religion he is an earnest Swedenborgian. He is an early riser and a hard worker. Admiral Sir A. Cooper Key. one of the Naval Lords of the Admiralty, died on April 2, at his residence at Maidenhead. The deceased Admiral was seized wi,th a fainting fit immediately after breakfast and never rallied. He was born in 1821. linteriug the royal navy at the age of 1 ;, lie had a most distinguished career. The aged ex-EmpressAugustn. ofGerinany has the arms of her chair so arranged by means of an ingenious meohanism as to rise to the level of her armpits, when she stands, and then hold her up. She stood supported in this way when receiving the Ambassadors, special envoys, and Princes who attended the funeral of the Emperor. The little sons of the German Crown Prince aro being educated in rigid military style. When their father enters their room , Prince William — a little fellow of sis — bids his juniors " fall in." ThensmallFreclerick aud v Albert rank behind Prince William, and the trio stand stiff and starched liked genuine pickelhaubes till their father salutes in military fashion.